Guest Podcast at Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights

I recently participated in a podcast hosted by Bubbawheat at Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights in which we compare and contrast superheroes in anime with their American cousins. I even manage to remain civil when Bubbawheat brings up that blight upon the anime world, DBZ! I feel like we barely scratched the surface, but a good time was had by all. And if you have any interest in anime or superheroes, you’ll probably have a good time listening in as well. If nothing else, you’ll finally get to hear my real voice, which has absolutely not in any way been digitally altered to conceal my true identity. The show is called Filmwhys, and the episode is Extra #12 Anime Superheroes!

I had fun with it, so I wouldn’t be opposed to doing another one. Although, my voice fades out so much! Clearly if I ever do make another one I’ll need to get a better mic. That built-in laptop mic ain’t doing too good.

And there was a moment or two where I wished we had your insight on some things. When Ninja Scroll came up and the martial arts aspect slipped into the conversation it would have been cool to have some commentary from you. Maybe something about those always mystical eunuchs that pop up in your reviews and how the superpowers work in martial arts films.

Yeah, you definitely need to get a mic if you want to do more. Like Bubbawheat mentions, even a cheap one should be suitable.

Hahaha, that’s funny you were thinking of the martial arts superpowers at that time because when I was listening that was exactly what I started thinking about. One of these days I’ll have to get over my fear and do a podcast!

The wuxia genre really is the superhero genre of China, with heroes and villains possessing wild superpowers obtained through rigorous training (and sometimes castration, mostly for villains). There’s a movie called The Bastard Swordsman where the main character achieves a high level of supernatural feats by training alone, but then to take it to the next level three women perform a ritual on him, imbuing him with their power and encasing him in a giant silkworm chrysalis. He later busts out with the powers of a silkworm, which includes the ability to shoot lasers and silk strands. It’s such an awesome movie! There’s a sequel, too, that I haven’t seen it yet.

But in wuxia movies I don’t know that there’s any parallel to the “dude getting superpowers through freak act of radiation,” and that’s kind of a big hallmark of American superheroes! Although I guess the same could be said about American superheroes not having characters who only trained to get their powers. Hmm, but Punisher would probably fall under that category now that I think of it.

Aside from the mic issue which I tried to improve a bit in the edit, I thought it was a pretty good episode. You’re welcome back anytime… at least after you buy at least a cheap mic or headset, I think the one I use set me back a hearty $15.